This month, Metro contractors are cutting down more than one hundred mature trees along the 91 Freeway in order to clear space to add one more westbound lane through North Long Beach. This Long Beach neighborhood is roughly two-thirds Latino and thirty percent Black; it is already plagued by unhealthy air, as part of the 710 Freeway corridor termed a “diesel death zone.”
The ~$300 million project currently under construction is one of three different 91 Freeway widening projects that Metro and Caltrans are working on. This highway expansion adds one more eastbound lane for about 1.2 miles from the 710 Freeway to Cherry Avenue, meaning widened freeway bridges at Atlantic Avenue, Myrtle Avenue, Orange Avenue, and Walnut Avenue.
Streetsblog has covered this project in the past:
The widening does not demolish any homes. Instead, it expands the highway footprint within existing landscaped Caltrans right-of-way. This entails taking out the landscape: 174 trees. Metro and Caltrans were not even planning to “replace” all of these trees, until a 2022 Hahn motion insisted that Metro follow the city of Long Beach’s two-for-one tree replacement policy.
This week, the trees are being cleared away from the site. Below are before and after pictures taken in 2024 and yesterday.
Metro tree removal at 67th Street and Lewis Street
Metro tree removal at 67th Street and Myrtle Avenue
Metro tree removal at 67th Street and Lime Avenue
Metro contractor heavy equipment moving massive tree trunks around
Lest you think removing scores of mature trees is perhaps a bad thing, Metro and Caltrans have several explanatory banners posted. These urge passersby to “Imagine Your Drive.” (So much for the Metro Highway Program’s focus purportedly shifting from solely driving to multimodal projects. Just Imagine Your Drive.)
Metro explanatory signage at 91 Freeway widening project states “What’s happening here is brighter than it looks” and “Imagine Your Drive”
